I Like Learning New Things

I love these quiet morning hours spent reading, punctuated only by a simple lunch before I resume my reading or writing again. Today, it's chicken porridge. I put in some sesame oil and a dash of soya sauce. Not bad. I'm reading about the Japanese art of woodblock printing (ukiyo-e), a genre that presented 'pictures of the floating world'. I did not know that it was introduced into Japan from China during the Han dynasty. Quite amazing, isn't it?

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Cierzo · M

I am so glad you can have those quiet days. I will envy you now that I am back to work.

novembermoon · 51-55

@Cierzo ' In these mountains where the breath of trees turned to mists, where the mists entered the clouds and fell to earth again as rain, where the rain was absorbed by the roots deep in the earth and drawn out as vapour again by leaves a hundred feet above the ground. The days here opened from beyond one set of mountains and ended behind another, and I came to think of Yugiri as a place lodged somewhere in a crease between daybreak and sunset.'

Oh, the sheer poetry of The Garden of Evening Mists.
Hope you have a nice day in school.

Wraithorn · 51-55, M

I must be honest, I find the photo of your food to be more artistically appealing to my eye than the wave print. 🙂

Sssslm · F

Although originated from China, the Japanese art was successful evolving into a distinctive style.

SW-User

I’ve seen that painting before I really like it.

novembermoon · 51-55

@SW-User it is called The Great Wave off Kanagawa by a famous artist Katsushika Hokusai. It's really great.

SW-User

@novembermoon we had to pick an art piece to re do for an assignment last year and another classmate picked that one.

Vivaci

That's truly interesting....I didn't know that. Tell us more....😊

novembermoon · 51-55

@Vivaci thanks for reading it. I am just scratching the surface of the knowledge of this ancient art form myself.

My interest was piqued when I started reading this book 'The Garden of Evening Mists'. It describes the art of woodblock printing (ukiyo-e), body tattooing (horimono) and the art of stone setting in a Japanese garden. In it, it is written -
'Gardens were created to approximate the idea of a paradise in the afterlife....so many of the gardens I had seen in Japan had a distinctive rock formation as their central feature. Mountains loomed large in the geographical and emotional landscapes of Japan and over the centuries, their presence had permeated into its poetry, folklore and literature....emphasized mono no aware, the sensitivity to the sublime...'

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